Baby on Board!

The rest of this year is going to be a big one in our little family - we are expanding by one!

We have been dying to share this news with all of our family and friends, but thought it would be more fun to do it in person, so were waiting to make our semi annual tour. Although the waiting nearly killed us, being able to see the looks on everyone's faces made it worth the wait!

We are thrilled to welcome our newest crew member at Christmas this year and cannot wait to start this new chapter of our lives!! However, with this exciting news came an almost literal slap to the face - how were we going to afford a baby on a boat?! After much thinking, debating, a bit of arguing and lots more thinking, we finally came to the decision that it would be better to start our little family on terra firma rather than on the boat. So, with heavy hearts, we are looking for our final port and a place to sell our floating home.

This decision did not come easily, especially for me. I have been lucky enough to come across a few boating mommas out there (namely Genevieve and Brittany whose amazing blogs you can check out here: ItsANecessity and WindTraveler) who have befriended me and for years I have watched their beautiful children grow into amazing little people with a fierce sense of self. I have always loved and admired the way that boat children are brought up - exposed to so many different cultures and an entirely different way of life - they seem to be so much more aware and easy-going and learn such a sense of independence early on. I have always wanted that for my children and the thought of raising a child on a boat doesn't scare me, it excites me. But, to raise a child, you must have money and that is something that we are sorely lacking at this moment.

To be able to afford this fantastic lifestyle that we have lived, we have both had to work long, back-breaking hours when we are ashore. To cut one of us out of the equation to stay at home with a child means half of our savings gone and in turn, our trips would be cut in half. So, we have to make the decision that is right for us as a new family and will sell the boat. I will, however, be forcing my children to enroll in sailing school as soon as they know how to swim! The sailing bug is in our blood now and we are both still holding onto the dream that we will be back on a boat before we know it!

Semi Annual Friends and Family Tour, Spring of '15

It has been awhile since our last post, and while there has been lots going on in our social lives, our poor boat is still sitting in limbo. Despite multiple phone calls and internet queries, neither Brad nor our transmission repair guy has been able to locate a new transmission for us. So, our boat has been sitting disabled at the marina for over two weeks now, with no end in sight. Luckily, yesterday, our luck changed....kind of. Our repair guy called and said he had decided to do a complete rebuild of our transmission using new parts. He had ordered them from Japan and hoped they would come in within the next two weeks. Add another week for the actual rebuild and another week for shipping and the actual reinstallment of the transmission on our boat and it looked like it would be another 3-4 weeks of being here in Dataw. While we were excited to finally hear that a solution had been found, we were less than thrilled at the prospect of being here that much longer.

Dataw has been fabulous - friendly, caring people abound and now with our spiffy new A/C, we are comfortably biding our time. But, we are car-less and there is nothing within ten miles of our little marina - literally nothing. So, here we sit, plotting out our next big move and waiting to see when things will be resolved. But we are hopeful! At least there is starting to be a dim light visible at the end of the tunnel!

Meanwhile, our social life has been great! (Not in Dataw - we are the only liveaboards and often we will go an entire day without seeing another person!) But if you remember from my last post eons ago, we decided to hit the road and start our semi annual friends and family tour early. Usually we wait until we are settled in one spot before we do this, but with the heat, this seemed like the perfect time. So we loaded our kids and our possessions into a rental car and headed out!


We have the best little travelers!!

We had so much fun catching up with everyone (and soaking in their A/C and running water) and were happy to be able to spend so much time with people since we were not on a strict schedule. We made it to Franklin to see my family first, then on to Baltimore to visit Brad's family and to meet our perfectly adorable little niece, Liliana, who we couldn't get enough of!

After seeing family, we starting trying to squeeze in as many friends as we could - Columbia and Richmond were next to meet up with some of my fantastic college girlfriends and then down to Corolla to see our home away from home and spend some time with the ever fabulous Defeo clan.

**Disclaimer: I was a terrible tourist this trip and hardly took any pictures! So sorry for the lack of photos in this post! I will do better next time!


We rounded the trip out with a tour of the North Carolina water front in hopes that we would find a new port to call home. We were surprised that none of the North Carolina towns had much to offer in terms of boater friendliness and convenience and even more surprised when we found that our two favorite cities actually ended up being Little River and Charleston, both in South Carolina. After a few days stay in Myrtle Beach to recharge our batteries, we headed back to the boat.

Although we love our road trips and enjoy our time catching up with all our friends and family, we were all happy to be back in our little floating home and have been soaking up our little slice of heaven.

Transmission Woes

Well, looks like we are going to have to replace the transmission. After having a mechanic take a look at it, he told us there was nothing he could do. The yard has been great with giving us suggestions and letting us know how much and how long this whole process will take. But, it was Brad who did the most research and finally found an alternative to the expensive transmission replacement. He located a guy (one of only three on the entire east coast) who rebuilds marine transmissions and has done extensive work with our brand of transmission.

We soon realized this process was going to take a couple of weeks and after sweating it out in the sweltering heat for two days, we knew that was not an option. So, we decided to rent a car and head up for our "Friends and Family Tour" a bit early. This way, we could enjoy air conditioning and also visit people we hadn't seen since before our Bahamas trip. Visiting everyone now would mean that once we finally stopped for the summer, we would be ready to jump right in to working. So, off we went!

We had to personally deliver the transmission to the repair guy and then made the trip up to Franklin. All of us were thrilled to be in the A/C in the car, especially the fur babies and they were soon passed out in the back seat. It was an easy trip up and we were happy to once again be on dry land and in the comfort of a home. And it was great to see my parents, too. ;-)

The plans from here on out are tentative. We don't know exactly how long the transmission repair will take and we have no plans to return to the boat until she is fully ready to move again - it is just too hot. So, we are playing each day by ear and we will return to the boat once we are either done with visiting everyone or the transmission is fixed - whichever comes first.

In the meantime, we are completely enjoying the comforts of land life and are looking forward to catching up with everyone along the way! We are going to be making stops in Franklin, Baltimore, DC, Richmond, and Corolla - if you are on the way, give us a shout; we would love to see everyone!!